The Strength of
Stephanie Sibley’s Egg Shells
Twas Education week at Coley's Point Elementary circa 1989
and Mr. Kelloway's grade five class were marching toward the gymnasium to see
the science projects that had been prominently displayed on the tables all
throughout. They walked down the warm hall of the Elementary and Primary wing
of the school and through the doors into the older part of the school which
housed Junior high. As soon as the doors opened the temperature got cooler, due
mainly to the antiquated furnace which in the winter frequently failed giving
all the children a day or at the very least a morning off from school.
In a perfect line of students walking on the right hand side
of the hallway towards the spectacle was Russell Samways eager to see the cool
and wonderful presentations and experiments that were typical of Education
week. A functional volcano and little yellow chicks that had incubated over the
past weeks were the highlights of last year. What would this year hold?
Russell’s excitement was at its fullest when he walked into
the Gymnasium which was filled with wonderment and the collective body heat of
nearly all the other students of the school representing their work.
Mark Lundrigan had a display showing how an object becomes
inverted as you move away from it with a magnifying glass. His main object to
be inverted was a lit candle, which of course added simply to aesthetics and
nothing to functionality. And so like most all things Russell was intrigued and
asked to see the magnifying glass for himself and spied the objects as they
inverted when he focussed and moved away from them. Further on along the rows
of displays the class went until Russell and his friend Rob Harris happened
upon a most interesting display.
Propped up by egg shells cut in half and placed at each
corner were three large university sized textbooks piled one on top of the
other. In fact they were the biggest books Russell had ever seen. The
experiment showed the compression strength of a dome, or a facsimile of such,
which in this case were the egg shells that Mrs. Riggs’s grade four student
Stephanie Sibley had (perhaps with the help of her Mother) carefully cut
horizontally. Then each egg was wrapped along the bottom edge with masking tape
for added rigidity due to the hairline fractures one would regard after cutting
through an egg. In each corner resembled engineering’s prodigy - the dome - in
all its glory.
Both Russell and Rob examined the project carefully. They
looked at each corner and at the pile of books atop the eggs. They looked under
the table, along the table and looked very closely at each book - thinking
there was some mechanism helping to support these books. How could this be
possible their minds begged? Four egg shells supporting all this weight,
Russell was mind boggled that this could be so.
To a further degree the boys were invited to apply weight to
the stack of books, and each one added another book, for a total of five, thus illustrating
the great strength of a hen’s egg. This was certainly impressive judging by the
look on the faces of the two young boys in attendance. With the young students mesmerized
at the feat, a triumphant young Stephanie welcomed the boys to take blows atop
the structure - confident it would not topple.
Russell watched as Rob made a fist and dropped it onto the
stack of books. Surely this would break the shells. But as Stephanie predicted
the shells remained unharmed. Both intrigued and in awe, Russell took up the
challenge and despite his diminutive size offered that he could break the eggs.
So there it was - a stack of books held in suspended
animation by four domes with Russell Samways standing before it, certain he
could rise to the challenge. Then with one swift blow he brought a look of
disbelief to the face of Stephanie Sibley.
Despite his achievement, he immediately knew he had done
wrong. Instantly a warm anxious feeling of guilt rose up through his stomach
and manifested itself in a shaky, nervous apology that would do no good to this
shocked and speechless little girl. The look of sadness was all she could muster
as Mr. Kelloway's grade five class was summoned to the entrance of the gym for
the trip back and Russell's long walk down the cold hallway and down another to
the classroom where he and his guilt would sit in a desk . . .
. . . that is until an anticipated knock came to the door.
There stood Stephanie Sibley, the young heartbroken student didn't know Russell
but when Mrs. Riggs was notified of the situation she knew it was from the
group who had just finished viewing the science projects. It was without doubt a
Grade 5 student! Being that there was only one class of grade 5's in the school
Mrs. Riggs and Stephanie knew exactly where to go. Scanning the classroom she
quickly recognized then pointed out the boy who had ruined her science project.
In the direction of that finger - sat behind a desk that all but dwarfed him - was
Russell: nearly green with anxiety and wrought with guilt and remorse
In front of the whole class the incident was recounted as
Mr. Kelloway calmly listened to what had happened and finally walked to
Russell’s desk. Leaning across and reaching down to the desk he picked up the
small child by his clothes and raised him up out of the seat until his head
touched the ceiling tile.
Russell’s mouth went dry, he felt lightheaded and weak as his
classmates roared with laughter. However this was not the laughter he was
accustomed to. This was to be no laughing matter. This was humiliation.
Swiftly the young boy was thrust out the door and pushed
down the hallway ahead of his teacher. Words that were uttered were: "I
can't stand punks like you" and “what is wrong with the likes of you”, accompanied
by slaps to the back of the head (not the type that would land a man in jail,
but the type that were accustomed in that day - the kind that in this day and
age would tarnish a man's career) all the way to the administrative offices.
Mr. Barrett, Vice Principal, had been briefed and was
sufficiently abreast of the situation as opposed to the circumstances as the
nervous child listened from behind the door that read “Vice Principal”. He
looked hard and long at the rectangular signage that said “Vice Principal” and
all he could think of was the signage that looked just like it that his Father
had made for him, which he - with the help of a chair to stand on - stuck to
his bedroom door. This of course made him long to be home instead in being in
front of this door.
Then Russell Samways - visibly shaken and scared - was
brought to him.
"Close the door" the Vice Principal snapped!
"What were you thinking?"
“Why, why, why would you do something like this to that poor
little girl? You ruined her day and now because of you she has no science
project. What do you have to say for yourself?”
"Is there something wrong with you?"
This was the big
question that stuck in the little boy's mind as Mr. Barrett, eyes bulging out
of his head, actually jumped up and down and up and down on the floor as his
face turned an unhealthy shade of red. This was the maddest Russell had ever
seen anyone, and he was sufficiently intimidated and terrified to prove it.
Russell - not having the confidence to speak up for himself
- just stood there and tried not to cry. Due to the intimidation of the Vice
Principal, the boy did not speak and did not communicate what he wanted to say.
Later that day he would say the things he wanted to say - only it was to
himself - in his mind. He wished he did say something in his own defence or at
the very least describe his point of view. If he did speak up for himself maybe
he would have left that day without the thoughts, ideas, notions and questions
that would pervade his mind for the days and months and years to come. The type
of thoughts that intrude, interrupt and demand attention, all this was spurred
along by the regret of not explaining himself.
Instead, he stood in that cold and lonely office on a
February afternoon, wishing for the day to end and to be back home, as he was
yelled at and screamed at, until whatever self esteem he had - had gone.
